Stars of Hell
by starfight
Summary: All the magic towers are in peril, the gods are among the people now trying to rid the land of evil, but there are also those gods who which to inflict it--who will regin?
1. Parchment 1

As the Queen of the Heavens, she has traveled through time and space for nearly ten thousand years. Yet the memory of a love almost forgotten takes her back to the time of her youth before the magic consumed her soul.  
  
The strange girl walked into the inn silently the room instantly dimming and everyone fell silent. Her mass of red curls covered her elven ears and she sat down without saying anything to any of them. She arranged her long green and gold robes and wondered why it was so silent and the light was very muted. She looked to the ceiling and saw stars spinning slowly with the exact timing of the planet. She blinked and realized it was her fault and snapped her finger and the stars quickly disappeared. She always forgets the stars follow her everywhere whether she likes it or not. Conversation started up again and she sat there silently taking her thin brown spectacles off her face. The Tavern of Lost Hopes had always been the same. She would come in order a drink and stand and leave the stars following her. She always knew when someone was looking at her, or talking ill of the elven girl with curls.  
  
She was sitting in her usual spot drinking a deep red wine, almost the color of blood. It had a bittersweet taste. She was staying there longer than normal, just relaxing and unwinding from her work as an Astrologer in the Temple of White. She was perhaps the most famous astrologer because she had powers as an oracle. She could also manipulate her powers to help her do astronomical things; she could create constellations in her palm, and even add stars to the sky. People mostly called her Lady, or Princess but she isn't a royal. She goes by the name Elaina DawnStar or Lady Elaina.  
  
Koron watched a young girl come into the Inn he had seen her before but never noticed stars following her. He had never seen a elf with long red curly hair, and perhaps he might never. He adjusted the hilt of his sword, and watched her drink the red liquid. His slightly baggy black pants and his tightly fitted black shirt matched the deepest brown hair and his emerald green eyes stood out as much as the elven girl in the tavern. He continued to talk with his companions, every so often his eyes straying over to the girl in the corner. Koron motioned to the bar tender to come over to him.  
  
"What do you need sir." The beefy man bent down a little his smock stained with beer and his ragged hair falling across the side of his face.  
  
"Who is the girl over there in the corner." He looked her direction and the bar keeps eyes went over following his gaze.  
  
"For I am not in the place to say, she pays me to keep her secrets heh?" he stood to full height and went back behind the bar cleaning the numerous goblets and mugs.  
  
"Thank you kind sir." Koron whispered as he left. He said goodbye to his friends as they left the bar some drunk and others sober for they to have hard work every afternoon. A warrior looking for something to do in his life, he lives by his sword and not by anything else.  
  
Elaina finished her wine, in the fancy silver goblet that she also pays to keep only hers. She stands gracefully and goes to the bar keep.  
  
"Thank you, it was very good tonight." She placed three silver coins on the bar and leaned a little closer to the man.  
  
"My Lady, the man over at table four was asking about you." He whispered into her ear as he dried a mug and set it in a cabinet.  
  
"He will have to continue to do so." She said in a rather mysterious voice and she patted the coins on the table. "Thank you again." She turned and left her red curls bouncing and her green robe seemed to float behind her.  
  
Koron stood quickly as the girl walked out of the tavern briskly. "Grivel where is she going?" He said to the bar keeper who was carefully washing her goblet.  
  
"Her business is not my own sonny! Go look for her yourself perhaps?"  
  
"I just might do that." He tossed two gold coins paying for the drinks of his drunken friends plus a little tip. He opened the wooden tavern door and looked quickly along the damp streets. 'Why does it have to be do damn dark.' He thought looking about for the girl  
  
"A little light perhaps might be of good use." Her calm voice washed over him and she snapped her finger a moon appearing dimly in the blanket of black sky. "You seek me out warrior, and I become curious as to why for you have never heard of me."  
  
"No one tells me anything these days." He spun around looking for the source of her voice. "They are all paid by powerful people to shut up."  
  
"Yes, but I am defiantly not powerful, I don't rule a kingdom-well I take that back, I rule something but no one understands it." She beamed she could see him straight on but he had no idea where she was it was quiet amusing. "Tell me warrior what is it you seek out?"  
  
"Nothing in particular."  
  
"Don't lie."  
  
"Who said I was lying?"  
  
"The stars." She blinked and she became visible to the warrior who instantly became surprised. "I know when people lie, I know when people talk about me, I know when the weather changes, I know when people will die, were their life will take them."  
  
"The stars tell you this? Silver specks of light tell you all this? Bah."  
  
"Believe or not." She turned and walked down the alleyway to the main street. She walked briskly and picked up her robes so they wouldn't get dirty from the fair amount of tar, mud and water in the cobblestone streets. Koron ran after her almost slipping into mud, he regained his balance and skidded to a halt.  
  
"Your name?"  
  
"Koron son of Drathen, I am Lady Elaina." She snapped and disappeared fading into the shadows. The warrior stood there. 'The stars tell to much.' He grumbled and looked up the sky, the moon now gone for she has left, and the clouds covered the heavens. He silently went back to where he was staying his father was a fell known mage, but Koron never took interest in memorizing spells and waving about your hands here and there just to make a fire the size of a pinhead. He stepped into the small home and motioned to his father who sat at a desk with graying hair and thin glasses he read a large book labeled "High Sorcery."  
  
"Father do you think it is wise to believe in the stars?" he slid off his shoes and sat down in front of his father.  
  
"Of course, just look at Lady Elaina, look how far specks of light got her! Ho oh she is a smart one." He turned the page not looking up to see how much his only son has grown. "Why a sudden interests my son?"  
  
"Lady Elaina was at the Inn again tonight, and I talked with her."  
  
His father chuckled. "For you talked to the Lady of The Stars, at a tavern where brawls are considered rough housing it? Why do you go there anyways?"  
  
"Father don't change the subject. Anyways she is quite interesting."  
  
"Quite isn't the end of it, she is fascinating, She works for the High Society Mages up at The Temple of White, the elven women should not be tangoed with, and did you see her pendent around her neck or was it covered?" His father flipping the page yet again, his frail fingers bent to a peculiar pose.  
  
"I believe I saw it." Koron redrew a picture of her in his mind remembering what she looked like and wore. He searched the picture and found the pendant. "It is silver, it looks almost like an a cross but all the sides are even as if it fit into a box."  
  
"And the gem in the middle?" His father finally looked up and motioned him to remember more.  
  
"A blue topaz."  
  
"Bah, grow up boy! It was a star gem. If looked at close enough inside the gem there is a small star that moves around inside slowly. The gods give it to the ones they see fit to know their secrets. Many train and pass dozens of tests to revive it, but she walked in one day and talked to Master Arign and he gave it to her from a silver box and said the gods welcome you. It was rather strange for I was there. Good-night my boy." The man stood his old human bones creaking. He closed his book and set his glasses down on the table and moved out of the room. Elaina was probably twice as old as his father yet she still looked twenty human years. Koron smiled to his father and retired to his chambers. 


	2. Parchment 2

Elaina woke early the next morning and tied her mass of curls up in pins. She shoved her spectacles up onto her nose and grabbed her spell book and walked the short distance to the Temple of White. The streets were somewhat drier than the night before and no one was awake yet. She liked the feel of being alone and no one bothering her thoughts. Day was her least favorite time, for the stars were not visible so she could not easily teach humans the ways of the gods. But luckily the gods blessed her with being able to see the stars in the sky even when the sun shines brightly. The girl walked past the guards into the Temple and walked up the white marble stairs her flat shoes rubbing against the cool stone. The stairs spiraled upwards and finally came to a big room where one of the High Society Mages stood looking at a picture on the wall.  
  
"Frindle, how are you today?" She bowed slightly and he nodded to her greeting.  
  
"Just fine thank you milady." Elaina continued across the room and up another flight of stairs. She always grew bored of walking up and down these stairs but her room was almost to the top of the tall tower. It was right next to the High Council Chambers where underlings come to talk to the High Council. She stepped up the last step and sighed there were two doors leading from the room, one to hers and the other to the round Council Chamber. Elaina walked quickly over to her door and took out a slender brass key and unlocked the door, she snapped her fingers and Stars filled the room giving the area a dim light. She walked to her desk trying not to stumble upon the many books and scrolls that were scattered across the floor. The girl turned on the lamp and looked up at the chair in front of her desk.  
  
"Were you ever going to notice me?" The man sad smiling and folding his arms across his chest.  
  
"Master Arign, nice to see you again, for it has been awhile since you have come to look in on me."  
  
"I looked in on you yesterday as I do everyday dear." The mage laughed becoming confused in her words.  
  
"I was being sarcastic." She pulled her chair in a little and sat down. The large windows on her left brought sun into the room, and she stood aggravated and pulled the curtains slightly closed. Then walked back to her seat. "What is it you need this morning?"  
  
"Well I have some mages coming today, and I would like you to meet them."  
  
"Oh yes that's right I remember you saying something about Oracles." Arign frowned, for he hated her power immensely. "She stood again and walked to the wall in front of her and stepped on the ladder that was attached to the whole wall of books ranging from mythology to hardcore facts of the universe. She scanned her finger across the bindings and found what she was looking for. "Master Arign would you toss me that scroll in front of you with the blue ribbon around it?"  
  
"Of course dear." He pointed at it and it floated over to Elaina on the ladder. She grabbed it and smiled, she untied the ribbon and let it fall to the ground and unrolled it. "Now Elaina, with these oracles they are going to tell you what they see for the future."  
  
"And it will be wrong." She sighed and said calmly not looking up from the scroll or the open book she was comparing it to. "Just like this scroll from your brother. He believes he knows more than me." She tossed it down onto the floor next to the ribbon then she put the book back in place  
  
"You can't hate him for trying to prove you wrong dear, I have heard he finds you fascinating that's why he sends you scrolls such as that, one day don't be surprised if there is a ring in there." He laughed then stopped instantly knowing she didn't find it amusing.  
  
"I grow bored reading his scrolls full of false readings."  
  
"And I don't like giving them to you either dear, for I know how much it troubles you."  
  
Elaina climbed down the ladder and stepped on the scroll ignoring it. She picked up a jar with a blue light in it almost looking as if it was a pixie. She placed it in front of Arign and he stared at it for a moment.  
  
"Thank you for doing this for me." He took the bottle and stood up for it was a star in a bottle and it possessed lie detectors that Elaina had enchanted it with. "The oracles will be here at noon oh and someone is coming to see you before that, I shall show him up when he arrives." He opened the door and walked out the door shutting itself behind him.  
  
Darin awoke late that morning and he crawled downstairs, his father was already gone to the Temple of White for work and now her had nothing to do. He sat there instantly bored and figured living by your sword sucks. Then an idea came to him. 'Elaina-Err Lady Elaina. I could go find her' he stopped thinking for a moment. 'That is a stupid idea Koron what the hell are you on!' he smacked himself over the head and grabbed his sword that was by his jacket, which he left lying on the floor. The morning sun washed over him as he stepped out hooking the sword around his waist. The markets were already busy with commoners buying vegetables and flowers. He pushed his way though the crowd not planning anything on where he was going but stopped when he passed the gates of the Temple of White. He stepped forward and put his hand on the gate handle and pushed it open, the guards on either side helped him little. He stepped in for the first time and saw the white fountain in the middle of the Plaza. He walked around it and entered the door of the main building and instantly got lost for everything looked the same!  
  
"Ah Human warriors how they do excite me. Are you here to see your father?" Master Arign stood in front of Koron waiting for the Oracles to arrive.  
  
"Yes, urm no, no I am not I am here to see Lady Elaina." He said stammering.  
  
"To the left and all the way up the stairs, she in the left room." Arign twitched for he read his mind swiftly for the warrior knows nothing of the girl upstairs. He laughed in dismay and continued to wait. Koron walked up the stairs, his black boots tapping the stone steps. He sighed when he got to the top and walked to the room on the right reached for the door then he remembered it was the door on the left. He turned and walked his hand still outstretched and reached for the long door handle. It swung open and hit him the face. Koron grabbed his head in agony and tried to regain his sight. He stumbled forward hitting Elaina and her scrolls and pile of books in her hand splattered across the floor. The warrior looked up and smiled apologetically. She frowned and bent down her robes fluttering to the side of her. She picked up the scrolls and books and stood with them in a nice organized pile then pushed past Koron without saying anything. He turned sharply and watched her walk down the stairs.  
  
'I have just been nominated the worlds biggest loser.' He thought to himself. He leaned against the marble wall and slid down to the floor putting his head in his hands. He sighed heavily the looked up when he heard a cough.  
  
"Excuse me I need to get into my office." Elaina was back, her hands empty. Koron stood and moved out of the way. "Come in if you wish, but I cant guarantee we will have time to chat."  
  
"Chat? Who ever said anything about me wanting to chat to you?" Koron was trying to hide the fact he wanted to talk to her.  
  
"Koron, I am an Astrologer, perhaps you didn't notice." She walked in and pointed to the ceiling the stars still in motion from the first time she stuck them there that morning. She sat down at her desk and pulled out a black piece of parchment and a quill. She dipped it lightly in silver ink and started to scratch on the paper slowly. Koron hovered over her a moment then backed off. "Now tell me, why have you sought me out again."  
  
"I didn't seek you out the first time last night, so this is only the first time."  
  
"No you wanted me to be there, I could see it in your eyes, I wont trust you if you don't stop lying to me." She didn't look up from the parchment but dipped the quill into the ink again and kept writing.  
  
"The fact is--." The door swung open and three oracles and Arign walked in causing Koron to be cut off when he jumped.  
  
"Master Arign you are early."  
  
"For they arrived early Lady Elaina." He nodded her head as she stood. "Koron please wait outside, you may resume your talk with the lady afterwards hmm?" Koron nodded and stepped outside. "Now Lady Elaina this is Sir Dante from the temple of Blue." He pointed at the middle-aged man who wore blue robes and had rather blonde hair. He bowed and kissed her hand. "This is Sir Chridar, he came from the elven city of Novorelm." He too bowed but Elaina but her hands behind her back. "And this is--."  
  
"I am Lord Taiss pleased to meet you milady." The oracle stood straight up. His black robes hit the floor. And his shoulder length brown hair seemed to shimmer in the dim light. He held a staff with a simple onyx on top.  
  
"Lord Taiss, why are you here?" Elaina was startled.  
  
"I am an Oracle ma'am and I am here for the same reason they are perhaps?" He questioned her simply pointing to the other men.  
  
"Interesting." She looked him over. "Please come in and have a seat we will get started right away. The men sat and Elaina stood and leaned against the edge of her desk, she gently took her spectacles off and unpinned her red curls from the bun that it was in. "Now I understand you want me to answer true and false?"  
  
"Correct." Chridar nodded slowly blinking his blue eyes. "I will take the first question. Your life will end from being killed by a human warrior." Koron heard that one though the door. Elaina closed her eyes then blinked them open quickly  
  
"False, I will die from my magic. Next please."  
  
"Armies will gather to the north?" Sir Dante tried to smile to the girl  
  
"True, they will form on the twenty second moon but shall be slowed by snow on First Harvest."  
  
"You love a human?"  
  
"Now I must let you know nothing is wrong with loving a human, but it is false, for my heart belongs to the gods no?" All three oracles nodded and Dante looked up.  
  
"One last question from me. The source of your power is from a star gem?"  
  
"Partly true. The gods granted me my powers, the gem shows they favor me, but power is from within oneself." They nodded again.  
  
"That is all from me as well." Chridar stood and followed Dante out of the room.  
  
"Arign would you leave us for a while? I would like to speak to Lord Taiss." Arign nodded, bowed and left the room following the other two men. Elaina stood there for a moment and then went behind her desk and pulled out a clear ball and set it on the table.  
  
"Elaina, is it true, that you don't love a human."  
  
"Taiss getting oracles to go away isn't the start of my problems." She sighed and looked at the floor. "I love a human though, and it shouldn't be considered tolerable, my people will frown upon it." She pushed back tears that were forming in the corners of her eyes. Taiss put down his staff and hugged her tightly. She buried her face into his robes and cried.  
  
"You don't always have to be so strong." He put his large human hand on her head.  
  
"Taiss why are you here anyways?" her muffled voice was stammering "You're a black mage why are you here?"  
  
"To see you, and its weird that I got in here without Arign knowing."  
  
"Heh." She tried to lighten up. "I bet he knew." 


	3. Parchment 3

Koron stood outside patiently. He phased the floors and thought a whole lot about what was going on in the room. He felt out of place standing there waiting like a statue.  
  
---Meanwhile---  
  
"Taiss how have you been?"  
  
"Busy, I came to Lloverden to find a warrior, for I am assigned to a mission by the Black Hall." He looked at the ground Elaina still buried in his robes.  
  
"What do you have to do?"  
  
"I can't tell you."  
  
"Can I come along, I need to get out of this blasted city please Taiss please." She unburied her face and whined. "I even know a warrior!"  
  
"Elai! You know I can't bring you"  
  
"Well you could you just don't want to." She unwrapped her arms from Taiss and walked behind her desk and went though a drawer of scrolls and letters. A frown on her slender elven face showed she was truly disappointed in Taiss.  
  
"You know your right, Arign probably knew why I was here."  
  
"Yes he did."  
  
"I'm his half brother after all."  
  
"You never told me that." She looked up from the drawer over the top of her desk. She saw the man that she had known from a previous life in the heavens and she had fallen in love with him and had almost forgotten it for she was a simple Heaven girl and he had eternal life from Hades.  
  
"The gods never told you?"  
  
"My love life doesn't concern the gods and goddesses, and the stars tell me nothing of hell."  
  
"Well that's to bad." He walked around her desk and looked at her with his amethyst eyes.  
  
"I'm going with you." She stood firmly. "Whether you like it, love it, or rather loose eternal life I am going with you."  
  
"It's your own life Elaina, and I rather not put you in danger such as this but I might as well deal with it and be happy for it is you and I am glad its not someone else." He took her hand in his and kissed her palm, and Arign walked in and shut the door not letting Koron even get a peek on what's going on inside.  
  
"Brother, what the hell are you doing here!?"  
  
"Well Arign it seems you have a wonderful life in The Temple of White, but I am here picking your girl here up and taking her with me on a mission assigned by the Black Halls."  
  
"Elaina is this true."  
  
"Master Arign it is, I can't stay here forever and you know that as well as I do! I can't spend my life telling people they are liars"  
  
"You still call him master?"  
  
"Taiss he is still my employer in the Temple." She gave him an evil glare for daring him to say another word then she whipped her head back to Arign. "Please just let me go. Some day I shall return."  
  
"I would let you go if it was someone other than my half brother who gains his power from hell." Arign fumed, he was lucky he could withhold his anger until he showed the other oracles out. Koron opened the door for shouting was going on. He poked his head in and Elaina saw it remembering she had left him out there. What a loyal warrior not going anywhere.  
  
"Koron go home, pack your bags we leave in thirty minutes." Elaina sent a star to him from the sky on the ceiling that whispered into his ear then returned back into the closeness of its friends.  
  
"Arign it wasn't your decision it was her own, now let her do it." The two brothers went at it and Elaina packed a small bag of her belongings, she even pulled out her staff she had stashed in an ancient closet in the back of the room. The long black oak handle that reached about a foot and a half over Elaina's head and then the silver crescent moon with a simple silver star next to it. She slung the bag over her shoulder and took her staff in her left hand.  
  
"Good bye Arign please be safe." She kissed him lightly on the cheek then wrapped her arm around Taiss. "Go." She whispered up to him and he transported them outside of Koron's small home. Taiss smiled brightly and grasped Elaina around her waist and spun her in a circle then put her softly back on the ground. Koron opened the door and almost dropped his bag to see them in front of him.  
  
"Koron I hope you don't mind, I found you work. And this is Lord Taiss." Elaina smiled when Koron bowed to the both of them.  
  
"I'm honored to travel with both of you." He looked up to the sky as he though he saw an enormous shadow move overhead. The sky darkened as if a thunderstorm just brewed. Elaina put all her weight on her staff and felt weak, her head pounded with magic. Why hadn't the gods given her more time on knowing this!  
  
"Elaina are you okay?" Taiss put his hand on her shoulder and tried to support her weight  
  
"Get out of here Taiss, take Koron with you."  
  
"Lady Elaina, what's going on?" Koron now worried as well held up her other arm the both of them supporting her weight.  
  
"Green Dragons are coming from the north to destroy Lloverden, get out I must go back to Arign." She started moving pushing the two off her and she wobbled down the streets moving all the commoners that looked up to the sky. Elaina closed her eyes and looked for Arign in the Temple, she found him in side her office still. 'Arign get out.' A little star whispered in his ear. 'Get out, the armies have beaten the snows for tonight is the twenty second moon.' Arign looked out the window to see Elaina below him and the star danced near his ear. 'They are twenty minutes from here, get out.' The star cut off for Elaina's magic was being drained. Arign was angry with Elaina for leaving but he wasn't going to let the whole city suffer, he still trusted the girl in the street. Elaina felt extremely weak; her body seemed to bend forward hunched over clinging to her staff. 'Why must the gods take so much power to get me information?' She mumbled before collapsing on the cobblestone her hair fell out of the pin and blew across her face, her robes lay scattered across the area. The warning bell rang, and commoners rushed to get out of the city, taking only what they could carry with them. Taiss and Koron searched for the astrologer everywhere but couldn't find her. Arign got together his armies of mages and clerics and fled as well; only a god can out match a green dragon.  
  
"Koron meet me at the Old Aspen." It was an inn thirty miles west of the city. "I will go find her for I can teleport." Koron nodded and followed the crowd then turned and went west instead of east. Taiss pushed his way though the fighting commoners and saw a green lump in the street up ahead, a long black oak staff in her hand. He teleported over to her side and checked her pulse. It beat slowly and imprecisely hidden in the depths of her elven body. He picked her up and she moaned slightly her body could not withstand anything drastic for nothing flowed though her veins, elven blood but magic is what controlled her and it was all drained for the gods took so much from her. He picked up her staff it shocked him and Elaina woke up stiffly and saw the fireball shoot overhead he ducked as it took out three buildings.  
  
"Thanks Taiss."  
  
"For?" He didn't notice she was awake.  
  
"For your magic." The Shock from her staff sucked all the magic from Taiss's body but his body lived off fear.  
  
"No problem hun."  
  
"Put me down." Taiss set her on her feet then handed her her staff. She sighed heavily and saw four green dragons in her magic's range. She casted and the sky darkened even more and purple rain droplets dropped from the sky each one getting bigger and bigger.  
  
Arign turned and watched the sky darken and his lips curled into a smile. "A Goddess has returned to the city with Star Fall."  
  
If there's so much I must be...  
  
Can I still just be me...  
  
The way I am?  
  
Can I trust in my own heart...  
  
Or am I just one part...  
  
Of some big plan? 


	4. Parchment 4

Koron went west disbanding from the crowd of commoners and walked though the dense forests. He stopped on an over looking hill and glanced down at the burning city, he saw the stars fall and he looked underneath the Temple Of White, seeing a glowing green body which he instantly knew was Elaina. A black figure stood next to her not bothering on casting, and Koron tried to figure out why not. But he had the same beliefs at Arign that only a god can defeat a green dragon. He turned and left his sword clinking as he walked along dodging the trees outstretched branches.  
  
"Elaina we must go, there are six of them here and you are pretty much sneezing on them with star fall, and there is the whole god damn army behind them!" Taiss grabbed her wrist trying to break her of the spells hold. Her eyes glowed white and her staff held sturdily in her hand bursted with blue light. She kept keen eye on all the dragons circling the city and incasing the buildings with flames. But a swift wind blew past her causing the black mage to stumble a little backwards releasing his grip on Elaina. She stood there the wind whipping though her long locks of ruby curls, and her robes being thrown about around her. The blue tassels on the end of her long scooped sleeves bellowed in the wind. "Elaina if we don't go right now we are going to be killed, if not by the dragons it will be by the hand of evil."  
  
"And you Taiss Son of Rothand are not evil yourself? For you generate evil spells and you are a black mage that deals with Hades."  
  
"Elaina trust me these intruders are probably more evil than me, which I could doubt impossible but that is besides the point." Taiss blinked quickly trying to avoid more on the subject, he leaned on his oaken staff becoming bored with standing there doing nothing. "Elaina just come on! Cant we just fight evil and save the world another day?"  
  
"In time mage you will understand the way of the gods."  
  
"Elaina just come on, stop messing around." The girl smiled big, she enjoyed tormenting the dragons but decided it was best to stop because Taiss was growing impatient. The stars stopped falling and the sky lightened a little but was still covered with gray clouds. She grabbed a hold of Taiss's robes and he smiled down at her. Taiss slammed his staff on the cobblestone street and thought of the Old Aspen Inn where they were meeting Koron. And soon enough their they were in front of the old inn that was built in a small Aspen tree. Taiss led the girl in and saw Koron sitting down already his ale half empty.  
  
"You made haste warrior I must say I am surprised." The bar tender rushed around the bar and stepped in front of Taiss in effort to stop him.  
  
"No black Mages in this here inn, I wont allow trouble to arise." The tall lanky man stood a little shorter than Taiss himself. Taiss pushed back his shoulder length brown wavy hair and leaned on his staff Elaina somewhat behind him.  
  
"No need to be scared Bar Tender, my magic wont do harm anyways, because right now I have none flowing though my elven veins as of now." The bar tender stepped back in defeat.  
  
"And I am supposed to believe a black mage?" He leaned forward the top of his head just below Taiss's nose.  
  
"You are because I took it from him for my own use." Elaina pulled down her cape hood, her red curls bounced lightly.  
  
"Lady Elaina, pleasant to see you again." He bowed then returned behind the bar.  
  
"I would like a room for my friends and I." She shouted back to him as he nodded. She sat down next to Koron and Taiss across the table from her. "Now where do we go from here Taiss?"  
  
"I can't tell you, the Black Halls gave me very strict instructions not to tell anyone." He put his head in his palms and Koron sipped his ale leisurely. Elaina on the other hand picked though Taiss's mind hearing thoughts about the mission.  
  
'Go to the Blue Tower, retrieve the staff of Nutras and return to the black halls, kill anyone who interferes.' She thought to herself. 'Well I am going to interfere so already he has broken one law, and Koron he interfered, and the staff of Nutras isn't around anymore so its physically impossible and the Blue Tower is over eight thousand miles away! To be exact it is 8,645 miles from The Tower of White.  
  
"Lady Elaina." She snapped out of her trance and turned to the source of the sound when the bar tender called her name. "Your room is ready miss." Elaina nodded and stood the others following in pursuit. "Second room on the left miss." The bar tender returned behind the bar.  
  
"Elaina, stop picking at my brain would you. Even though I tell you I cant say anything you insist on entering my thoughts and sorting everything I know until you get what you want." Taiss turned the brass doorknob and took out the key sending Elaina a mental thought.  
  
"Its not my fault you cant keep anything inside your own head." She walked into the room and sat down on a chair in front of a small fireplace  
  
"Excuse me! It is my head with my thoughts, I don't pick yours!" Taiss stopped at the doorframe and let Koron pass who had no idea this whole conversation was even going on. "Then how did you know I was picking though your head Taiss?" she glanced into the low fire and crossed her legs under her robes, and carefully placing her head in her palms her elbows resting on her knees. "You were picking though my brain again weren't you? Lets just face reality for a moment love, we can't keep secrets from each other."  
  
Taiss rolled his eyes and shut the wooden door, then walked to the window passing Koron who was sitting on a bench at the foot of the bed. He opened the curtain to let a little light pass though; even though he preferred the dark he knew Koron would go crazy without light. "Elaina how can you be so- so seductive when we chat like this?"  
  
"Its my job hun, and look at Koron here, he doesn't know what's going on, its like shouting in an open room with a billion people telling them your worst fear and them not even hearing you."  
  
"I hope you guys don't mind but I am going to go look around."  
  
"Sure Koron just be careful there is probably more danger here even though the armies are going east." Taiss didn't turn from the window until Koron had shut the door behind him and there was a soft click embedded in the metal lock. "And what might your fear be angel of the stars?" Taiss turned quickly his long curled brown hair sweeping past his face and his long black robes rustled around his ankles. Silence still filled the room. Neither one of them has spoken a word outside their heads. "Your own power scares the living hell out of you doesn't it Elaina?"  
  
"Not like you need to know." She stood abruptly and casted a stone glare at him.  
  
"Elaina." He finally spoke his voice echoing softly between the barriers of the wooden room. "Elaina." He repeated stepping towards the girl. She was still nineteen, younger than he would ever be in any immortal life him still living at twenty-four. "You and I don't age and our powers keep growing. Your soul of power has been born millions of times each one stronger. Your magic will continue to grow-."  
  
"I know what it does Taiss, I have lived this life before."  
  
"Perhaps. Have you ever considered each time your reborn it is the starting point of magic. Right now you are nineteen the magic still has--"  
  
"Taiss stop it." She whirled around to look at the human who had forever to live with his magic. His immortality would be on going because of his bond with hell. She longed to be stationary for one moment. But her life was different, each step her magic grows stronger consuming her soul, every time she is reborn she starts all over again, hopefully this is the last life she will live and the gods may finally release her from their grasp letting her live a normal life.  
  
"Elaina, I'm sorry." He broke the on going silence and wrapped his robed arms around the girl that stood before him. "I didn't mean for you to get angry, I know how it hurts to think about remembering one life to the next."  
  
"No you don't but I am not going to continue talking about it." She said her voice muffled in his robes. She looked up holding tears from her emerald eyes. He placed his slender hand on her chin and kept the other wrapped softly around her waist and leaned down to kiss her lightly on the lips. She almost fell for it but then pulled out of his arms and turned back facing the door blushing. She couldn't do it, She couldn't kiss the man she loved because she knew the gods would frown upon it, and then she would never fulfill her life task for them to release her. Elaina's life was far more complicated than most would presume. Taiss stood still his arms still hanging where Elaina pushed them out of the way, then he dropped them to his sides.  
  
"I understand Elaina."  
  
"Do you?" She turned to stare at him again his face emotionless as it normally was. "Do you really understand why I want to be let go of this life? I want to be normal! I want to be a normal sorceress and live a life that I can love full heartedly."  
  
"You know you still could do that. The gods don't mess with your love life you know." He dropped his voice into a whisper pulling her close again. "You can freely love me as you would love a man who would die when he was ninety."  
  
"This is like a fairy tale tome, the archangel of the heavens falls in love with the evil spirit that lurks though death." She sighed and pressed her body into Taiss's robes and gave into the love she had kept locked up in a container the color darker than a moonless starless night. "Except I doubt it will end happily ever after." She whispered.  
  
Koron walked eagerly though the woods trying to find something to do! What was a warrior supposed to do on a mission with a beautiful girl who loved another man, and the man was an evil wizard. Koron's thoughts were simple. Why would they need his help anyways if they ever needed it in the first place? The warrior trudged around in a gloomy state thinking his presence wasn't really needed and he shouldn't have followed Elaina and Taiss into this whole thing. He was acting like a child running after a stranger who had a bag of candy. Koron stopped at a clearing and sat down on a rotting stump. The sun was dipping below the horizon now but no one could see for the cloud cover was so thick. Koron thought he better be getting back, he could hear Taiss now screaming at the top of his lungs looking for him. Koron hadn't even known Taiss that long and was already feeling as if he had known him for years. He entered the inn and sat down grabbing a mug of ale and drank it gingerly. Once he was finished he walked to the room and opened it with the key he had grabbed off the small table before he left. The lock clicked open and the room was now dark, the sun past the horizon. He shut the door and noticed Elaina curled up on the bed, her robes neatly piled on the floor next to her bag. She was dressed in breeches and a white tunic. Taiss was asleep on the chair next to her his hand wrapped gracefully around her wrist. Koron could make out the soft steady pattern of the girl's breathing. He took off his shoes and sat down in a chair close to the fireplace were Elaina had been sitting earlier and he quietly drifted off into a restless sleep. 


	5. Parchment 5

Taiss woke up first recognizing the figure in the chair and then the shivering girl on the bed. She seemed naked without her robes on which he grew so fond of. Taiss pulled the covers from the bottom of the bed and placed them over Elaina's shoulders bringing almost instant warmth to her small frame. He smiled and pulled his long black robe on with gold hems down the side, and he walked down the hallway to where the bar was vacant. He left the inn and stood outside a moment wondering where he should start this so called mission. But he pushed it out of his mind and wondered how they were going to get Elaina across the continent without totally ruining this mission.  
  
Elaina woke up suddenly and looked around not seeing Taiss but smiled when she saw Koron still asleep in the chair. She pushed the covers off her body and swung her feet off the side of the bed then gracefully hopped down. She rummaged in her bag and pulled out a long white dress that was clasped with a gold pendant at the halter-top. The clasp held an identical white cape that had no sleeves. She took her breeches and tunic off and slid the dress over her elvish body then pulled her gold bracers out of her bag and clamped them on over each wrist. She then took out her gold coin sash and clipped it around her waist and the single banded gold circlet sat comfortable on her head. It slid neatly under her red curls and lay nicely on her forehead. She looked out the window to see Taiss standing there his black robes pulled tightly around him to block the start of winter's brisk air. She walked down the hall and out the door Taiss had used earlier.  
  
"Taiss?" She leaned against the doorframe her white dress created no warmth. Taiss spun around and faced the girl.  
  
"How interesting, the archangel is dressed in white." He nodded his head. "And me dressed in black."  
  
"It suits you though." She smiled and looked around. The ground was covered in frost and the trees were bare. The forest of evergreens and spruces were all that added color to the winter barren land. The sky still covered in over hanging gray and slate colored clouds promised snow later that day.  
  
"What do the gods see for today?"  
  
"Snow." She closed her eyes pressing her body against the wooden frame of the door. "More armies to the north, they are working east towards the Green Temple of Land."  
  
"So lets see, they wipe out the White Temple of Plains and Heavens, They are wiping out the Land Temple, they are going to want to take down each temple so---."  
  
"So they can control the world with what magic their mages acquire within the depths of each temple, but of course they have to find the charms to each temple. The blue tower-is seen as attacked last." She stumbled over her words. "The Water temple creates more magic then any of them together, if you are going to do this mission you must hurry the Black Temple will fall before the blue one does."  
  
"You know the cycle of destruction?" he stepped back surprised the gods told her their deepest secrets.  
  
"Diamond, jade, ruby, onyx, sapphire. The magics of this world always follow the same pattern. The temples form a pentagon on the land." Elaina flickered her eyes open and stared at the black mage who was becoming over whelmed by the information Elaina could just pull from the gods at random moments.  
  
"You surprise me. But the charms have to be found to acquire the magic correct?"  
  
"Of course. There is one thing stopping the armies now which is the Temple of White charm is no longer present."  
  
"Who is actually ruling these armies?" Taiss couldn't help but pull all the information out of her as he possibly could.  
  
"Gods tell me things Taiss but they don't show me the world as it is, they show me the world as it could be."  
  
"Elaina if you know so much and your reborn only to live again, does that make you a goddess?" Koron walked though the door not looking at either one of them. "Humans are not as foolish as one would wish for." Koron spoke in a monotone voice holding his sword hilt tightly. "You know Elaina your more beautiful in white then you are in green and blue." Koron turned and stepped towards her. He slid the back of his fingers down the side of her cheek and took her eyes and held them in his own.  
  
"Koron what are you doing." She whispered. Elaina was almost turned on by this sudden act of affection from a warrior.  
  
"Cant a man show a girl he has fallen in love with her?" Koron pulled Elaina's chin up to his height and kissed her passionately on the lips. Elaina struggled to wrench herself free of the strong warrior's grasp but couldn't. Taiss stood there gripping his staff firmly, his anger level rising. Koron wrapped his arms around the elven girl and then thrust her forward his dagger fiercely approaching her neck as she was turned in front of him. "How would the gods like it if a human had a dagger who can kill one of their own?"  
  
"Death is not a debt I am yet willing to pay" (Purraj of Urborg) Elaina closed her eyes and her hair seemed to blow into numerous directions. The red curls straightening as her eyes flared open her irises flashing amber from the original emerald. Of course Elaina as well as Taiss knew if the Flowstone Blade, its long polished brass hilt and the blade itself forged in the depths of hell against the gods of good. But it had been lost for centuries and now recovered in the hands of a human mortal.  
  
"Elaina stop it." Taiss took a few steps closer to the girl realizing her power could reach its peak and she could easily die. Koron thrust the blade closer to her neck and scratched a cut that flowed freely with red blood. Elaina didn't seem to notice.  
  
"I can't believe they expect me to fight with this rabble." Elaina whispered as a gust of wind picked up her soft words and blew them across the courtyard and over the cliff only for them to vanish in a breath of breeze.  
  
"I am surprised you fell for it, all this time I have been playing you, and a goddess who claims she knows when someone is lying. Bah I call that a weakness. And if it is weak I either kill it, or ignore it. Anything else I could do would honor it. And of course I am not going to let my armies suffer from a girl who has the gods on her side." He thrust the blade into her neck her eyes flashed amethyst her staff flickered black then blazed into a brilliant white light and a power serge erupted from the charm around her neck and Koron was shot backwards hitting a large aspen a couple hundred feet away. Taiss covered his eyes from the glare and stumbled backward and Elaina's dress flapped rapidly around her. Taiss dropped to his knees and brought his hands down slowly for the light was dimming.  
  
"Koron son of Drathen the fatal flaw in every plan is the assumption that you know more than your enemy." (volrath) She ripped the blade from her neck. "Return to your hell chamber and reclaim your armies I urge you to bring the Flowstone Blade back to me." She threw the blade across the yard; it skittering to his feet and it spun a moment then suddenly stopped. Her hair fell back into place the curls not returning, the wind died down and her eyes continued to glow amethyst. Koron did not stand up but leaned back in immense pain that the tree had inflicted him. Elaina stepped forward her hand outstretched to Taiss. She pulled him up without even grabbing his hand, her magic surging out of her elven flesh. Taiss looked to the goddess and smiled but his smile failed for she had changed, not just in physical appearance but her mental strength. Still living at nineteen the magic was starting to envelope her soul. He realized her life this time seemed to be going a lot faster. He had witnessed her life twice before and soon she will die only to be reborn to live the same life again unless she fulfilled the legacy.  
  
"Taiss." She didn't look over to him but whispered his name with strength. "Twice I have let the Legacy slip away, never again." (Karn, silver golem) She brushed pass the aspens Taiss close at her heels. They left Koron in the courtyard only to realize he too was running short on time the war would start sooner than mortals will apprehend. 


	6. Parchment 6

Koron walked into his war room and sat down at the round onyx table; his advisors and generals surrounded him. In the middle of the table was a crystal ball with a fuzzy hint of light inside of it and across the table sat a mage dressed in red. His dusty blonde hair almost the exact same shade as Arign's.  
  
"Now, that mission was a complete failure I thought I had her." Koron plopped his head in his palms his eyes scanning everyone. "What news do you bring from Lloverden, please tell me it is good news." His face seemed to harden slowly as no one spoke up. He sighed heavily then raised his head and stared coldly at them all. "Damit! Can't anyone tell me anything?" His fist hit the table with a thud and the mage jumped as the crystal rattled.  
  
"Lord, Lloverden was a success in destroying it." A grand general from Koron's strongest army stood and spoke. "But not to disappoint you to much the amulet was not recovered."  
  
"What the hell, it was in Elaina's chambers, I told you morons where it was!"  
  
"We looked sir." The general sat down.  
  
"Donovan what can we do?"  
  
"My lord." He touched the amulet around his neck the same one as Elaina, his voice echoing though the hall sounding like Arign's. "I may be the older brother to Arign and Elaina may be my love---." Silent laughter filled the room. "But I believe her power may not be stoppable, I have a feeling the gods are among us again." He lowered his head in disgrace. "Her magic grows with every step she takes." Koron ripped the blade from his pocket and threw it across the table.  
  
"That's her blood, and she ripped it out of her neck without wincing in pain." Then he ripped off his fine black silk shirt only to reveal bruises and a large scrape down the middle of his chest. Everyone seemed to gasp. "And you now tell me her magic is unstoppable this is unbelievable!" he looked down to his chest then closed his shirt covering his flesh as his face fumed a deep scarlet.  
  
"The spell is actually called riposte. It's a shockwave spell my lord, gods and goddesses only have access to it." He sighed again. "After all these centuries she is finally a goddess I seem to be proud of her." He mumbled Koron only catching a few words here and there luckily missing the part of 'proud of her.'  
  
"In the morning we go to Green Temple, I suggest you bring all your men there tonight and hide in the forests on the north side, the dragons will be used last. And I want a company to go back to the Temple of White and search for it, The amulet is in there some where I know it. Koron stood and everyone followed in pursuit. "Dismissed, and Donovan I would like to speak to you in private so don't move." Everyone bowed and slowly filed out of the room. Once everyone was out Koron's face stretched into a frown.  
  
"Sir, is everything alright?" Koron didn't reply right away but fumbled with his hair.  
  
"Donovan I want you to do something." He looked to the other side of the room where a large mural of flames incased in black hung from the gray wall.  
  
"And what might that be sir?"  
  
"Kill her." He said plainly not looking at the astrologer but continued to stare at the flames.  
  
"What." Donovan stepped back his mouth dropping instantly to the floor. Koron swiftly turned his face twisted into a smile, his hands where placed behind his back and he seemed to hover over Donovan.  
  
"I want you to kill her, the gods will be on our side now that they know she is weak." Koron laughed and stormed out of the room thinking the plan was all high and powerful. Donovan stood there a moment listening to wax from the candles drip to the floor he rubbed his hands over his face then stepped out of the room dragging the crystal ball from a magical thread, the wooden doors shut cutting off the thread of magic and the ball dropped and shattered to the floor as the doors bolted behind him and the candles were instantly distinguished.  
  
"Elaina." Taiss stopped her by pulling her arm and holding the girls fast walk to a stop. She didn't turn to look at the mage but stood there looking plainly into the distance. "I have been walking the wrong way, we need to go to the Tower of Blue."  
  
"Humans should learn their rightful names of the towers but human please keep calling it The Tower of Blue to suit your wishes." She still didn't turn to face him and there was a hint of change in her strong voice. "We or at least I am not going to the Tower of "blue" because I need to go to the "green." The names of the colors seemed to be used sarcastically. "There is someone I need to find before they destroy the temple."  
  
"But what about my mission?"  
  
"And what matter is it if all the temples are going to be destroyed and everyone killed. You ask me about your mission and I ask you about my legacy."  
  
Taiss didn't know what to say but Elaina could change back anytime now to the loving girl he had known before and whom he started to find irresistible. "Well then let us go?" Taiss stepped off in the direction Elaina was heading anyways hoping in due time she would change back and then he could continue his mission. But he thought for a moment while walking steadily with Elaina that was his mission anything compared to her legacy? He could fail a million times and always try again but she would lead a new life. He started believe he should put her life first then he decided that's what he would do. Elaina even saw it coming, the temple would be destroyed and it doesn't matter because everyone would die but this is the life Elaina wants to end. Every time Taiss looks at her he sees the pain that she doesn't want to keep living this way.  
  
Elaina walked steadily on, she was wondering if she would get there before nightfall so she could get into the city from the northern woods before the armies camped them. She thought of Taiss and teleporting but it was no use, she had to do this on her own, and she didn't really feel like dealing with a petty human and his silly magic.  
  
Taiss continued to walk without saying anything. Every once and a while he would let his hand float over to hers and it would brush it gently before she would snap away and hide her hand in her cloak. He was getting sick of her attitude but he figured it was just a phase and the magic and spread further into her soul. In a matter of a few months she could easily be dead. Taiss grabbed her right shoulder and wrapped his arm around her waist and bent her into a dip and kissed her right on the lips. Her eyes closed then flickered open to the original emerald colored saucers that Taiss knew. Her hair fell over his arm that was across her shoulder and seemed to bounce back into the soft silky curls that he loved running his fingers though. Her body became limp and she rested all the weight on his arms as he slowly laid her on the ground. Her eyes closed and lips rested together, her pulse slow and hidden deep within her flesh. Taiss sighed he had accomplished bringing her back, but now she was too weak to go anywhere. The magic she worked had taken so much energy and the gods blessed her with their godlike makeup until love takes over. Taiss sat down on the ground his black robes organized around his knees he watched her chest heave slowly up and down in steady rhythmic patterns. Night quickly fell the starless night seemed to make Taiss comfortable. He started a small fire without any twigs but the fire burned in the palm of his hand easily and it shone unsteadily like a wax candle. Taiss was growing bored watching her so he curled up in his own robes and extinguished the fire and lay next to Elaina his body wrapped closely around hers so he could keep her warm from his own body heat. It was around three in the morning when Taiss woke up suddenly. He looked around eyeing that Elaina was still sleeping peacefully. There was a cough from behind him and he jolted upright and saw in the shadows a woman wearing deep reds with gold bells, rings, tassels and beads. She had a small bag that was slung around her shoulder and her rather long black hair was decorated with beads. The large bell attached to the end of her long hemmed skirt jingled softly as she bent down over Elaina her soft brown sandals pushing into the dirt of the diminutive path. Taiss fluttered his eyes open even further wondering where the hell she came from. She rummaged though her bag only to pull a rock from it and she placed it on Elaina's forehead pushing Taiss out of the way without saying anything. The rock glowed red a moment matching the hue of the woman's clothing then dimmed back to the black rock. The woman picked up the rock and shoved it back in her bag and shook it roughly to get the rock to the bottom then smiled in bliss. "She will come around don't worry about it lad." The woman stood and tapped Taiss under the chin then on top of the head as she started to walk past instantly dimming in the shadows the bell jingling softly then she disappeared. Taiss reached out to grab her to say something but she had already gone. He cocked his head a little in puzzlement then looked down to Elaina, the glow of her body dim in the dark morning. Her hand moved over slightly and it rubbed up against his.  
  
"Payerrod is the goddess of healing, don't worry who she was, she keeps secrets very well." Elaina sent Taiss a faded mental note and he instantly felt comforted that there was life inside the girl. He felt her forehead and her fever had gone down and her heartbeat was more evident then it was earlier. "I suppose the gods and goddesses will see much of me since I am turning into one of them." She tried to sound a little perky but her strength level was so low.  
  
"Perhaps." He smiled down to her his northern accent getting the best of him, but he knew she heard him before she drifted back into sleep. It was around noon that morning when Elaina finally woke up her heart full of energy then she realized what she had done.  
  
"Damn you Taiss." She cursed his name as she looked up over the small clearing seeing smoke rise into the first blue sky since the beginning of that moon. "Damn kiss I could have stopped it, they have the Earth Charm." She sighed heavily. "You think you could get us into the city?"  
  
"Probably, but do you really think they attacked that early in the morning?"  
  
"No doubt, I just hope everything isn't destroyed yet." She bent her head a little, the red curls brushing her cheeks. Taiss stepped behind her pulling her hair back then placing his hands on her shoulders, she reached up with her own hand and grabbed his. Light blasted from the trees shrouding her vision half of radiance and half of hours of darkness it was if she had been staring at the blaze of a candle to long and then it was smothered out and she could still make out the trace of light still imprinted in her mind.  
  
"You have to close your eyes when I do that Elaina, remember?" Taiss laughed as she stumbled backwards to regain her vision. "We are near the southern gate, the northern one isn't in existence anymore."  
  
She looked over the edge a little bit in which she could see the city where the green temple once stood. Now it was only piles of rock covered with green moss that was dieing to an awful yellow brown color. She frowned then grabbed Taiss and pulled him down with her to the gate.  
  
"You shouldn't go marching in there looking like that." Taiss suggested pulling a different black robe from his back and quickly changing his.  
  
"Fine." Elaina thought of something she could summon up and once she found something in her mind that interested her she picked it and her dress changed.  
  
"Jeesh your like a total knockout, Eli why don't you do that more often?"  
  
"I always forget about it." She shrugged and looked down at ther outfit. The short rather tight green skirt with a blue top that had a very low 'v' neckline that went down to her navel. With gold 'x' ties all the way up. She had black bangles around both wrists, her hair actually down to her shoulders and not up in a tie. Her boots were black as well and went up below her knee and they had a blue and green tassel hanging of the black laces.  
  
"Your staff hun." Taiss was worried everyone would recognize it. She nodded and gave it a grim look instantly turning it to a sword. The hilt was blue as was the metal of the sword itself; the steel twisted around creating intricate patterns in the metal, almost giving it a astronomical feel. Taiss and Elaina nodded in approval and walked into the gate that was still standing only because of wooden poles.  
  
"Halt, names please, and business here." A guard stepped out from the shadows of the gate.  
  
"Its not your business to know about us." Elaina kept walking her sword (a.k.a staff) hung slightly at her waist. The guard grabbed her arm and she clamped his wrist and thrust him forward flinging him to the ground. "I warned you." She walked on Taiss's eyes got as big as potatoes as he saw the guard weighed almost twice as much as her. The guard stood and scurried up the street hidden in the shadows heading toward headquarters where the lord was awaiting information regarding any suspicious characters.  
  
"My Lord, a girl and a young mage have entered the city." He stood panting at the doorway looking at Koron who sat at a table with a candle and a letter. He looked up. "Bring the girl to me unharmed, kill the man." He resumed looking at his paper as the guard left. Koron sighed and held the paper over the candled flame and the corner caught fire instantly and the manuscript was gone a moment later. "Donovan you might be off the hook this time." Koron stood and stepped outside holding the door handle with his left hand. "If anyone comes with the girl, take her and I want you to bring her to me." He turned and shut the door it closing with a click. Donovan closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, at the moment he was invisible but Koron had felt his presence earlier. He sighed and his body became visible and he sat down on a chair close to the hearth and looked into the flames.  
  
"You bastard!" Elaina kicked a guard in the stomach. There was about eight of them trying to get a hold of her and about six after Taiss.  
  
"It's orders miss, please just cooperate." A rather tall guard loomed over her and seized her wrists binding them with metal bracelets, she screamed again and Taiss still struggled against his own problems but saw her being pushed away her face drawn in a frown before everything went black. Elaina walked her eyes closed and head bowed looking to the ground. She kept shifting her hands in the bindings behind her back. A Guard opened a door and pushed Elaina into the room causing her to sprawl face first to the floorboards at Donovan's feet. Her hair covered her tear-streaked face and she didn't look up.  
  
"Dismissed." His voice was soft as all eight guards clomped out of the building. "Well, well, look what some buckets of bolts brought in." Donovan bent down and grabbed her chin thrusting it up to meet his stare. Her locks of red curls were pushed backwards but her eyes remained closed. "We will have to put you in new robes before we meet the Lord." Elaina forced her chin out of his grasp and her outfit returned to the blue and green robes she was destined to wear. Her sword that had clattered to the floor some feet away modified into her staff. "Never mind the robes. Stand up." Elaina sat there looking at the floor. "I said Stand up." She remained in the same position not moving. "Get up DAMIT." He grabbed her arm and thrust her up pulling her to his side and shoved her out the door leaving her staff in the room. A light snow had started falling and Elaina moved with the same step as Donovan's but opened her eyes to see a frosted street with six dead guards and a puddle of red blood and a black robe. They walked for several minutes not saying anything until they reached a black building, a preserved one from the fire that had destroyed the rest of the town. Koron sat on a couch talking to one of his generals about the next move, the green amulet rested on a cushion in the middle of the table. "My lord." 


	7. Parchment 7

"Yes, keep me posted on that General, you are dismissed." The man stood and left making his way around Elaina and Donovan. "Sit her in the chair would you please." Donovan pushed her forward and plunged her into the chair where the general had previously been sitting. "Remove the chains." Koron smiled evilly, he now had a black amulet tied around his neck signifying the evil gods were one with him. Donovan unclipped the chains and let them drop to the floor. "Look up at me." Koron stood and stepped in front of Elaina. She moved her head up a little and raised her eyelids open so she stared right into his eyes. "That's better." He paused for a moment before he resumed talking his voice low. "If there is such thing as too much power, I have not discovered it. But have fear that I will discover it." His voice echoed harshly against the walls. The only other sound was the crackling fire in the far corner, which didn't provide even a minuscule of warmth. "Well Goddess, are you going to try to harm me?" Elaina didn't flinch. Her thoughts were drained out of her head, her memory kept flashing back to the robes on the street drenched in blood. "Damit Elaina!" his hand hit her across the face with such force she was pushed off the chair and onto the floor.  
  
"Just put me on the floor to begin with and save yourself the trouble of doing it yourself." She mumbled Koron hearing every word of it.  
  
"Enlighten me" He paused putting his hand on his hip. "Where is the White amulet?"  
  
"It was destroyed centuries ago." She said pushing herself upright.  
  
"Bullshit, you know where it is."  
  
"Actually I do, but I wont tell you." She reached her hand to push back curls from her face. She tried to stand but Koron hit her again, her body sprawling to the floor yet again. Donovan flinched but kept his face plane.  
  
"Donovan, please take her down to cell four." He tossed the key to him then grabbed Elaina's arm and flung her up and forward making her stumble into Donovan. "You know what to do, what we talked about earlier." He caught her and led her down a hallway and down steps that were damp with bitter cold water. Donovan opened the cell door and pushed her inside. He pulled his sword out of his robes and stepped in following her, his sword out stretched pointed towards her chest. "Just tell me where it is, then this can be all over." Her back was pressed against the wall and the tip of his sword was touching her stomach.  
  
"I refuse to tell anything."  
  
"Fine then." Donovan raised the sword a little the point clicking against the amulet around her neck he stepped forward closer to her. "You know this amulet shouldn't be around your neck anymore for the gods aren't with you at this moment." He cut the chain from her neck and let it shatter to the floor. Elaina raised her head up a little and Donovan moved the sword up even more to right below her chin.  
  
"What are you going to do now? You know better than to kill me, because you know how much I can inflict upon you, Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do." Her eyelids closed slowly and her breathing became hidden in her flesh again. Her hair seemed to straighten out. Donovan dropped his sword as her eyes flared amethyst. He reached out wrapping his hand around her neck and kissed her. She returned to normal state as he tightened his grip around her.  
  
"Back away from her." Taiss walked in no longer in black robes but he wore black pants and a shirt, he no longer carried a staff but a sword embedded with red blood stones, the blade itself was black, the hilt a deep gray. Donovan released her and snapped. A pair of chains bound around her wrists and connected them together and then attached to the wall.  
  
"Look little 'darkness' came to save the fallen angel." He said sarcastically as he stepped forward crunching the already broken amulet even more while picking up his own sword and he drew a small stick out of pocket in his robes. Apparently it was his wand. Elaina looked over at Taiss. His eyes were gleaming a crimson color and blood ran down his right arm and a cut bled like a waterfall from his cheek. His hair no longer brown but black seemed a little spikier than it originally was. "What is a wizard like you going to go to me. The gods favor me like they did Elaina." He touched his own amulet around his neck showing off a little.  
  
"Do I look like a wizard to you?" he raised his eyebrows a little. "I have no master. I am chaos." He wiped the blood off his cheek with the back of his hand. "You didn't actually believe the guards killed me did you Donny?" Taiss smiled while taunting him. Elaina shot him a smile and Donovan saw it. He snapped again and metal clamps forced Elaina closer to the wall as one wrapped tightly around her neck, and then a pair at her ankles.  
  
"I could tighten this one a little I think," he twirled his finger and the one around her neck tightened. She pushed her chin up a little bit feeling the biting metal cut into her flesh.  
  
"Stop it." Taiss stepped forward while Donovan still tightened the clamp.  
  
"Its really up to you whether you want her to live or die." He stopped his finger and turned to look at Taiss. "You've been betrayed by the woman you love. Did you see her kiss me with the same passion she kisses you?" He rolled his eyes and laughed.  
  
"Bullshit!" Elaina managed a whisper loud enough both men could hear her."  
  
"I wouldn't Elaina." He tightened it even more and her breathing became constricted her head felt light and airless and rapidly she lost all feeling of where she was, her eyes closed tenderly and her head fell forward. She heard the faint shriek of Taiss as she glided off into unconsciousness.  
  
"Release her!" Taiss shrieked as he saw Elaina gasp for air before drifting off.  
  
"Get though me first."  
  
Taiss moved swiftly moving quickly and silently, Donovan not even knowing he moved until it was to late. "You know you really should learn to fight Donovan." Taiss was now next to him, his hand on his shoulder and black shading spread up and down Donovan's body making him frail and weak. "I don't play games, I only roll the die of death to see my contender's fate." Donovan fell to the ground his body covered in bruises. He groaned in agony.  
  
"You are one of them--." He died on the floor of the cell and the chains around Elaina evaporated, their caster had ended his magical string of mana keeping the chains in place.  
  
"Yes a Shadow Knight I am." He whispered as he scooped up Elaina in his arms "And she is still a goddess and my love." He pointed at the amulet and the shards rose above the gray stone floor floating behind Taiss as he walked up the stairs and into the room where Koron still sat.  
  
He stood at the doorframe and the shards of amulet seemed to continue to float, Elaina lay across Taiss's arm half alive. The room had dimmed in the fading light of the afternoon and started to the rain started light then picked up. The streets by that time were home to millions of puddles and flooded street ways. The fire in the room was just embers now, and candles were lit along the walls of the room. Taiss blinked slowly. He didn't like this state of magic he was in. He knew that Elaina wouldn't get it, but the gods hadn't told her this because she loves him. And love obscures even gods and goddesses.  
  
"Put her down Taiss, and we can have a nice chat." Koron was sprawled out on the couch drinking a deep red wine his head propped up on several pillows. He took his booted feet off the couch to make room for Taiss who didn't move. "How I do want to speak with you." Taiss rolled his eyes and put Elaina down on the floor, her neck bleeding a little and her eyes still closed tightly. Taiss walked over to the couch but stopped at the table in front of it and remained standing. "Please have a seat."  
  
"I rather stand." Taiss blinked and crossed his arms over his chest resting his weight on his right foot. "Make it quick I have places I need to be." Taiss was impatient and really didn't want to leave Elaina on the floor over by the door. "You wont have any places if I decide to kill you like you killed Donovan."  
  
"He was worth killing at least, and it really didn't take any effort, and I would personally like to see you try." He looked across the room with his eyes over at Elaina, the glass pieces still hovering by the door. Koron set his wine on the table and leaned forward then unclipped an amulet from his neck and put it on the table.  
  
"The dark lord grants two of these signifying the Shadow Knights." He ran his human finger over the onyx imbedded in the black metal then clipped it back around his neck letting it dangle over his tunic. He picked up his wine again and took a sip leaning back.  
  
"Tell me something I don't know, I grow bored here." Taiss rolled his eyes again, for Koron was new to the Shadow hood. He shifted his weight onto his left foot and stared at Koron for a moment  
  
"You know I still have the Flowstone blade, and you being a dark god's servant can die by its hand too, and Elaina over there of course." He twisted his head over to where she still sat peacefully. "I would hate to see you both die by one blade though."  
  
"And I would hate to see you die by your own blade, your dark enchantment is still feeble." Taiss pointed his finger at the blade that was clipped around Koron's waist. The blade gradually slipped out of the belt and lingered then moved with Taiss's finger to the front of Koron's face. Koron reached out and grabbed it trying to pull it down but had no such luck. Taiss kept the blade there for a moment then walked over to Elaina, letting it scoot closer and closer to Koron. He picked up Elaina, opened the door and stepped out. The blade moved a centimeter closer then clattered to the table. Taiss now faded into the pouring rain shards of a broken amulet trailing behind him. He walked out of the city leaving Koron sighing heavily from seeing death by his own blade. It may have been an honor to the warriors and knights but to him it would be utterly discomforting. He leaned back on the couch a moment before standing and walking down to see how brutal Donovan's death had been. It ended up he was sprawled out on the floor in a rather uncomfortable position and the color had been drained from his skin. His wand and sword lay next to him.  
  
"Pity." He paused a moment and really thought if it was such a great loss. "Actually." He changed his mind, "No pity is being felt here." He sighed, "I suppose I will have to have someone come down here to dispose of him." Koron smiled slightly and walked out of the cell brushing back his hair. "How it irritates me that no one can slaughter these two." He garbled to himself while stepping up the steps to the main room, his general walking the length of the room waiting for the presence of his lord.  
  
"My lord, I wish to announce we are on schedule at the Red Temple. And none of my men have seen a sign of the two you seek out." The man ran his hand over his moustache and grinned. "The Red temple should go down as easy as this one did, and the amulet will be found right away. But sir, I have a question to ask of you."  
  
"Hurry and speak it now General, I wish to accompany you to the Red Temple."  
  
"Why do we bother gaining control over the amulets, if the white one has been lost."  
  
"Because it hasn't been lost, just misplaced. Now let us go, I will need one of your men to come down here and dispose of Donovan in cell four."  
  
"Our Astrologer is-dead-?"  
  
"Yes General, now let us go." Koron's impatience was getting the best of him and his temper was rising quickly. The General nodded and showed Koron out of the building. Men came in later to clear Donovan from the cell but Koron decided orders to burn everything standing by more than two wooden planks. The rest of the city was now fresh ashes of charred wood and flesh. The journey to the Red temple would take more than a few weeks for it was not as close to the others. ~~ 'The war shall end soon enough, as the mists cover the ground upon the blue temple. Slowly the gods prepare for war against greedy mortals and their foolishness of ruling. Mortals be damned when your time upon these fields will be no more and your blood will run freely down the sides of a fiery mountain of ashed flesh.' Elaina slid five golden beads into her hair, the beads framing her face softly. Her earrings rocked back and forth as her eyes slowly shut, magic being drained slowly from her body yet again. The gods relay messages onto their own, her being the one to change the fate of the world upon mortals. But Elaina like most of the gods had very different opinions of mortals, her realizing these feelings of disgust yet again in her lifetime. She knew not what god or goddess ruled behind Koron, who guided him to challenge the ways of the gods their lives are all dependent upon, but she herself knew the end of the war would draw on quickly and many more shall parish before the end of the bottomless pit is reached. Like throwing a coin into a well listening for it to hit the bottom. You wait there forever never hearing the soft clink of metal hitting stone, but you know that it will come in time. Elaina sat down in a chair; her eyes remained closed as she raised her palms then pushing them down. The candles simmered out and she sat there in remote darkness breathing softly before the wooden door slammed open, light from the corridor pouring in upon her and her silken robes. The golden circlet upon her head flashed brilliantly and her green eyes seemed to suck the light in, making them glow like torches.  
  
"My lady, they come from the west, Raiders of silver." A man bowed and stood waiting.  
  
"Bring their leader to me, give them food, drink and warm beds to rest their weary bodies for they are mortal." Her voice seemed no louder than a whisper and the man bowed and left his leather boots thumping dimly down the hall. Elaina stood her red robes shimmering in the hallway light, the candles flickered on and she shut the curtains of the small window with her finger. Her brother who she hasn't seen or heard from in almost five hundred years comes with news bound by the law of gods.  
  
"My lady." A man in chain mail bowed and removed his helmet, shaking his dirty hair off his sweaty face. The door clicked closed by Elaina's finger and she stared at him with remorse. "My brother for this season I have longed to talk with you! Who is involved with this war, whom is behind it?" she took his hand in hers and a pleaded look stretched upon her face.  
  
"There are five of us now, the mortals shall not over ride the gods."  
  
"Who shall join us on the dirt of this planet?"  
  
"Me, Lord Ostin god of the sword, Lady Turrqua goddess of the plains, Lord Irvos god of the mountains, and Lady Nystheri goddess of the lake. They have pledged to you Elaina goddess of heaven and earth for now they bid me to tell you congratulations for they have heard that you are truly one of us released from the rebirth of your mortal soul. Your magic has become great over that past seven rebirths and now your time has come to fight along with us."  
  
"Brother, I have been fighting this war far longer than any gods have ever. Now what news do you bring so swiftly from the west?"  
  
"The armies are coming, I suggest you take the amulet and destroy the city before they do?"  
  
"The amulet is theirs for the taking, the city however already burns with the rising sun that inflames the plains that lay untouched by bloodshed of mortals." Her eyes rested unblinking as the shade of green reflected the candlelight like a mirror.  
  
"My sister, for I have missed hearing your wise words from the higher gods."  
  
"As I miss hearing silence in my head." She stared at him full of remorse and agony. "You may go clean yourself and you may rest if you so please, but the red temple shall be no longer by the dawn of tomorrow. Get your followers to the Black temple and tell Lady Nystheri that she is needed at the blue temple as soon as possible." He bowed and turned slowly.  
  
"And Lord Taiss, shall he join us soon?"  
  
"For he is at the black temple now finishing a mission he set off to do before this war went on a rampage across the barren lands of waste, his bind with hell shall be honored as we know it."  
  
"I always liked him." He walked out the door and turned to the right, walking though the temple halls that were warm with blazing fires. He sighed heavily and wondered about the wellness of his sister, for she younger than him has already moved upon the great court of gods. Elaina proceeded out of her chambers and walked down the spiral staircase of the temple and walked out of the gates on to the plain. She pushed herself around shrubs and stood in the center of the field. She raised her hands above her head and a soft mist fell over the city and the surrounding land as far as she herself could see. The wind subsided and the moon was quickly shrouded and shut off. The plains grasses no longer whispered in the breeze but rested that night as she kneeled upon them her hands crossed upon her chest.  
  
"For gods rule this world, and the world before and after it. It wouldn't be a comfort to believe, that we can create our own heavens and hells, for the gods do the bidding and mortals shall act upon it. But now I state here that mortals feel their own heaven will not be a hell but hell to them is see as heaven of gods. Their paths are twisted and wound around their own greed and anger, for they believe our powers are not for them but for ourselves. Destruction shall fall upon them like the shroud of darkness on a moonless night, they know not what they do but act upon it." Elaina seemed to talk to herself in the field but the gods above easily heard her words and took comfort. She stood and walked back in the gates that were just closing and she walked back up to her chambers only to find Lady Turrqua dressed in white and yellow waiting for her return.  
  
"Lady Elaina the plains praise you for protecting their bruised grasses with your mist. But that is not why I am here. For my temple was destroyed but it is said the amulet was never found, I had placed it in a jar in your office early one spring, where is it kept now?"  
  
"Here." Elaina touched her neck where the star gem necklace still rested. A small light flickered around in it. "I placed the amulet in the star that floats mercifully in the crystal pendant. Turrqua smiled.  
  
"You truly belong up there with the High Court not down here on this damned planet."  
  
"Thank you for your kind words but war is coming and there will be an end to it placed by me. Now I am tired may I bid you goodnight."  
  
"As to you milady." She smiled and hugged Elaina softly. Turrqua was as much as a sister could ever be to a girl in one lifetime more or less seven. Her robes floated behind her as she left the room and she shut the door softly. Elaina laid her crimson robe on the chair and rested upon the soft bed swiftly falling into a deep slumber. Her head spun with views of war, bloody plains and the stars falling swiftly from the heavens. The gods were getting impatient with this war, and Elaina could only work as fast as her magic could allow her to. She longed for Taiss but he had his own mission to complete and she didn't know if she would ever see him again. That feeling of emptiness ate away at her soul every time she inhaled the stale air that felt death was lurking around each corner. Her mission had started gently with just wanting to go with Taiss but now everything seems to have been spun and twisted around. 


End file.
